Lets hear your views on going to ethanol as an alternate auto fuel, pros and cons. If it is parallel in cost and mpg to gas and maybe slightly less competitive to gasoline, if it weans us from middle east oil I'm for it. :confused:

How timely. A couple of days ago I sent this letter to the opinion section of a newspaper: ___________

Editor: What's really driving ethanol?

Archer Daniels Midland Company stands to reap great profits from the mandated ethanol use legislation about to descend on Wisconsin. The proponents claim everything from cleaner air (a false claim), better deals for the consumer that belie that ethanol produces less energy than gasoline so you get less miles per gallon, and greater independence for Wisconsin in energy use. Yet taxpayers will massively subsidize this forced use of ethanol. Nearly $42 Billion dollars ( http://www.ewg.org/farm/progdetail.php?fips=00000&progcode=corn ) has been spent by taxpayers on corn subsidies in the last 10 years. The lobbyists and public relations artists have left out the true costs. Where does the money come from for subsidies? In the past is was more closely akin to a pay as you go system for the taxpayers who seldom complain about the out of sight hidden costs of corn and other products. But under the Bush administration a switch to exorbitant deficit spending has taken place and money is borrowed for spending programs ranging from the Bush wars to pork barrel projects like bridges to nowhere in Alaska. China is largely buying up the debt. We borrow the money from China to subsidize the corn crop to make ethanol look cheap and declare energy independence in Wisconsin. The logic in that smells almost as bad as the ethanol plants.

If corn-based ethanol is a viable fuel, why has it failed in the market? Why will it take the force of law to get this "miracle product" forced upon the consumer? Why will taxpayers have to aid billion dollar corporations like Archer Daniels Midland in providing the crop upon which "cheap" ethanol is based?

"Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other." -Baha'u'llah

I watched a show on WPB which was discussing the concerns of ethanol for fuel. They were talking about how only certain cars were able to use it - in its full strength - because of the amounts of water in the product. I guess you have to have steel tanks and such for ethanol to be capable for use. So, now my concerns are - if it does contain amounts of water, how is even a small amount - like the 10% we have mixed in now - affecting my engine performance right now, is it doing more harm than good? It was also stated that we wouldn't be able to get good mileage from it either, so even with lower prices on it, do we save?